(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)
7:20 AM: Good morning! Welcome to October.
FERRY FARES: Increased as of today.
REMINDER: The next Avalon/35th intersection closure is scheduled to start 9 am Friday (October 4th) and last all weekend, weather permitting.
Another morning of bridge-long backups thanks to the intransigent charlatan Zimbabwe at SDOT.
Or…..maybe its the result a good number of those drivers refusing to take the bus, carpool, bike, take a different route, ask their employer if they can stagger their work hours, find a job closer to home, find a home closer to work.
I carpool; Get did of the lane. It’s not helping anyone. I’m guessing you consider yourself quite liberal. How smug to assume that everyone can work flexible hours, pick up and move jobs or afford to find a new home because the city can’t admit it’s in the wrong here. The system can never fail, it can only be failed, right? Anyway, feel free to go back to feeling morally superior to all the wage employees and apartment renters who choose to live here because it’s more affordable and who probably don’t need an extra 45 mins to an hour added on to their commute.
Well another backup all the way upadmiral.It’s time to take back our roads!!.Just drive in the bus lanes!!.Eliminate the 99 north bus lane right now!!.Sam is a complete fool..
Once again, I don’t see a difference in commute time at all. I take the 56/57 to downtown and it’s just fine. In fact, I have been leaving later and later and still getting to work on time.
I would agree, my bus commute is roughly the same, maybe a bit longer some mornings. Would love if Metro/SDOT provided some data on bus times since the lane was striped. However, if our bus commutes are still roughly the same, what was the point of the bus lane? There are plenty of choke points on the commute where buses need help, and I’m all for it (leaving downtown comes to mind). This just wasn’t one of those choke points.
Key point to dwell on. If the bus commutes are unchanged, or possibly longer, but the car commutes are worse then there was no value to the lane change.
It’s only better/faster because this coincided with them opening up the 2nd lane of Alaska and fixing the light timings on dearborn.
AA, there was not a problem with this degree of traffic backups until SDOT added the bus lane back to 99. A bus lane is no good if the bus cannot make it to the lane due to sitting in traffic 3 miles back on Delridge. If they save 5 minutes on 99 but take 10 minutes longer to get there due to traffic backed up into West Seattle then what is the point? It makes it more inconvenient and unreliable for both car and bus. Everything you suggest are things people can try to do but are not always possible. You are also missing the point that this is clearly due to adding a bus lane back to 99 and not to people’s sudden refusal to take the bus.
All of this stress for West Seattle residents due to SDOT/WSDOT idiocy. Scrape off the bus lane until a mile after the merge ramp. They need to know this – there was never any backups in the right lane of 99 that caused issues for buses. There were backups at the Dearborn exit, but that’s a separate issue. Why did we need this bus lane back? At the very least, wait until the tolling starts to see how many people avoid the tunnel and if it becomes an issue, THEN we go back to the bus lane if we need it. Avalon and Admiral are all a MESS for bus and car traffic! Enough!
Tons of bus lane violators today, absolutely infuriating. I drove today, for reasons unrelated to traffic woes, so I had a very different perspective than my usual view from the C line. I’m sitting here following the rules and waiting patiently in line, and these clowns just ignore the law and the point of bus lanes, like they are entitled to it.I won’t deny that they should push the bus lane back a bit from the on ramp, but they absolutely should not remove the lane entirely, and it is kind of frustrating people keep suggesting it. I have no sympathy of SOV’s, even when I am one. Buses are on a schedule, and they really do need that lane. It just doesn’t have to start that fast.They really need to bring in some serious bus lane enforcement. Start passing out tickets like candy and they’ll hopefully stop this nonsense.
Pushing back the start of the bus lane won’t do any good. If people know they have to get out of that lane, many will still try to merge as soon as they get off the ramp, and all it takes is one car to bring the entire line to a halt.
Yes, bad traffic is no excuse for bus lane cheating. Need to bring back the motorcycle cop.
I would really love to see some data on if this lane is really helping buses reach downtown faster. My everyday anecdotal evidence is it’s taken the same amount of time, if not a bit longer. Seeing as they already striped it, If they want to see the effects once tolling starts that’s fine. Replace the current signs with “Bus Lane Open to All”, and then remove those signs once tolling starts in a month. It would take one crew maybe a couple hours to do that. No need to make everyone suffer needlessly for another month.
The NB 99 bus lane is IDIOTIC! It helps NO ONE!If they don’t fix it then just drive in it. That can’t pull us all over.
@newnative:I don’t know what 56/57 you are referring too. Mine (7:16, 7:22, & 7:41) (Times are approximate at best) have been between 5 to 30 minutes since last Tuesday.A new slogan for Metro: “Oh No! Its Metro” like the old Lily Tomlin line “We are the Bell Company. We don’t care, we don’t have too.
I take all of those, Jaydee. Even with my connection downtown, it’s the same or faster than in years past.
can you please post the link to FERRY FARES increased; I know you posted it sometime in past week, but I’ve looked through all stories on this page and can’t find it
A reader says the new brochure, which I linked previously, has an error. So here’s the previous story:
https://westseattleblog.com/2019/08/ferry-fare-changes-finalized-plus-good-to-go-test-gets-ok/
I got tired of the traffic and bought an electric bike. Why didn’t I do this years ago?? Depending on the day I either work in Kirkland or downtown Seattle. It takes me 20 minutes from the Junction to Pioneer Square. No traffic….no-stop.If I’m working in Kirkland I ride to Pioneer Square and take the light rail to the UofW. From there I cruise across the 520 bridge and continue on the bike path to Kirkland. It’s actually a nice commute. Yes…I’ve done it on cold wet days. Just wear the right clothing. Strange how I look forward to it.
My e bike was stolen a couple weeks ago from my backyard. The new one arrives today. I’m exhausted commuting on my normal bike !
I’m posting on the Tuesday post because we are driving in so early on Wednesday Bus transit times have taken 10-15 min longer. I also have degenerative disc disease so the long commutes have not been kind to my back! So I’m up an hour earlier to drive in at the crack of dawn. Does this mean I leave work earlier? No. So you’ve got one extra cranky sleep deprived driver on the road today.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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